Aircraft, ships, and other vehicles are more commonly being constructed using composite materials, such as carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) components, to take advantage of the light weight and high strength that these types of composite materials provide over conventional materials. As an example, bonded stringers that are used to provide structural support to aircraft skin may be manufactured from CFRP to create components that are strong, but lightweight when compared to traditionally fasten metal stringers to skin. However, challenges can arise in areas where the stringers curve or deflect with the outer mold line of an aircraft. An example of such an area is an aircraft side of body (SOB) where the wing box and the center box of an aircraft are coupled. The dihedral and sweep angle of the wings may produce a curved region in which out-of-plane kick loads create rolling moments that the stringer is not capable of withstanding. In these situations, the CFRP stringers may fail due to interlamina tension stress at the radius between the stringer web and the base flange and/or the base flange may separate from the stringer noodle that is bonded between the stringer web and the base flange. It is also possible that the stringer may delaminate from skin due to increased shear loads in the bondline.
As a result, curved continuous CFRP stringers have not traditionally been used in highly loaded areas of an aircraft. In these highly loaded areas, conventional solutions have been to terminate the wing box stringers and center box stringers at opposite sides of a metal SOB chord to form a spliced joint. External reinforcement is typically provided at the joint with a metal SOB skin splice plate that further secures the skin to the SOB chord. While this solution may prevent delamination or other failure of the stringers due to excessive loads and corresponding rolling moments, the metal SOB chord and skin splice plate is undesirably heavy and complex.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the disclosure made herein is presented.